Assault accomplice
Shawn Eckardt caved and told the FBI about the
plot that was hatched with Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly,
to get Kerrigan out of the way.

Eventually Harding admitted that
she knew about the attack after the fact but failed to come forward. The United
States Olympic Committee was about to kick Harding off the team when a $25
million lawsuit filed by Harding's lawyers changed its mind.

The attack
on Kerrigan's knee might not have seemed so bad to her compared to the crush
of tabloid journalists that descended on her in the next few weeks as she
tried to recover.

Kerrigan recovered in time to compete in Lillehammer,
and the stage was set for the ultimate showdown. The suffocating media coverage
gave the entire proceedings an electric atmosphere. It was good versus evil
on the world's biggest stage. It was called the Battle of Wounded Knee II.

Heading into the finals, Kerrigan was in first place, ahead of
Ukrainian teenager and world champion Oksana Baiul
and France's Surya Bonaly. Harding was a distant 10th.

In the
finals, a controversial 5–4 split among the judges gave the gold to
Baiul by the slimmest of margins. Kerrigan got silver, and Harding got to
stay out of jail, which is more than can be said for her ex-husband and the
band of goons he hired to club Kerrigan.